Good morning, folks. It’s Tuesday, Sept. 8, and we’re getting toasty this week in Santa Cruz County, with sunny skies and highs in the 80s and 90s forecast today – and a heat advisory goes into effect from Wednesday night into Thursday night as temperatures warm further.
I WANT TO … Become a Lookout member | Download the Lookout app | Browse latest news | Community Voices opinion | Get other Lookout newsletters | Solve a puzzle | Find local events | Advertise
A 2017 felony assault conviction would disqualify a Pajaro Valley Unified School District board candidate from running for office in states such as Illinois or Virginia, Hillary Ojeda reports, unless he had received a pardon or other action by the governor. But here in California, the candidate, Curt Wilcox, is legally eligible to run for office because state law doesn’t prohibit him.
In his weekly Carmageddon column, Max Chun reports on the City of Santa Cruz’s response to criticism by the county’s civil grand jury that it isn’t doing enough to promote pedestrian safety. The Santa Cruz City Council disagreed with nearly everything in the report that relates to the city.
Lookout’s Community Voices opinion section has two offerings today. In one, affordable housing advocate and former Santa Cruz mayor Don Lane writes that the debate over Workbench’s proposed project at Seabright and Soquel avenues has become tangled in misunderstandings – about what is actually being proposed, how the city approval process works, what qualifies as affordable housing and where higher-density housing belongs. And in the other piece, Lookout founder and CEO Ken Doctor urges Gov. Gavin Newsom to sign Assembly Bill 2222 into law. “By creating refundable tax credits for employing full-time and part-time journalists,” he writes, “the Community NEWS Act is a tonic to the digital wars on fact and truth. It would be of significant help to those in the real news media, legacy and start-up.”
Those headlines and more await – away we go.
Were you forwarded this newsletter? Sign up here to receive Morning Lookout in your inbox every weekday.
You’re missing out on full access to Lookout
As a reader of Lookout’s newsletters, you get access to a limited number of free articles per month — but there’s much more! Members of Lookout Santa Cruz get full access to every article published by our team of on-the-ground correspondents. Join now to go beyond the headlines and dive deep into Lookout’s local coverage.
A Pajaro Valley school board race is raising bigger questions about who should be eligible for public office in California
Whether a criminal record should matter to voters is playing out in the race for the Pajaro Valley Unified School District governing board, where candidate Curt Wilcox has a felony assault conviction and a history of run-ins with law enforcement. California law doesn’t stand in his way — but many think it should factor into their decision. Read more from Hillary Ojeda.
Carmageddon: Santa Cruz disputes civil grand jury findings on pedestrian safety
The City of Santa Cruz almost entirely disagrees with the civil grand jury’s critical assessment of the dangers of walking in Santa Cruz County – particularly the assertion that the city has not implemented Vision Zero initiatives that could have prevented pedestrian injuries and deaths, and the finding that law enforcement has disproportionately cracked down on driving under the influence rather than speeding. Max Chun has the details.
DAILY DIGEST
One of the nice things about jumping straight into Tuesday is that among what’s still on the menu from Lookout is the latest from Santa Cruz County’s culinary scene via Lily Belli on Food – one of many free newsletters and breaking news alerts you can sign up for here. Download the Lookout Santa Cruz app from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store, and follow Lookout on Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram and/or Threads to keep up via social media.
Our content isn’t possible without community support, so if you’re not already, please consider becoming a Lookout member.
Have a super Tuesday – thank you for reading.
Will McCahill